1. Field of the Invention
An object of the invention is a device for crimping a contact on an electrical cable. Certain contacts are crimped at two positions on a cable. A first crimping, called an electrical crimping, is made between the sleeve of said contact and a conductive part of the cable. A second crimp, called a tight-sealing crimp or sealing crimp, is made further upstream between the sleeve of the contact and a sheath of the cable. More specifically, an object of the invention is a crimping device for crimping a sleeve of a contact on to a sheath of an electrical cable.
It is an aim of the invention to enable a tight-sealed or sealed crimping of the sleeve of the contact to a sheath of an electrical cable. Another aim of the invention is to enable the sealed crimping of different cable diameters with a same crimping device. Another aim of the invention is to provide for high sealing quality of the crimping whatever the diameter of the electrical cable.
In electronics, cables are used to connect electronic systems to one another or to an electrical power supply. In general, it is indispensable to ensure the security of these connections. Furthermore, in aeronautics, a connection between a cable and a contact has to be reliable, whatever the external conditions to which it is subjected. For example, in an aircraft, the temperature may vary between −50° C., when it is in the air, and +40° C. when it is on the ground. These temperature variations are undergone within a few hours. Now, high-amplitude temperature and pressure variations should not damage the electrical connections. In particular, the tightly sealed quality of the connection is vital to prevent corrosion. The utility of crimping the elements that come into play in an electrical connection is therefore essential in aeronautics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To ensure connection quality of this kind, there are dual-crimped contacts in the prior art. A contact has a sleeve with a truncated outer rim. An electrical cable is housed in the sleeve. The sleeve is made of a deformable and conductive material. A bared part of the cable as well as a portion of the cable encased in a sheath are housed in the sleeve. A first crimping operation or electrical crimping operation joins the sleeve of the contact to a core of the cable. The core of the cable designates bared strands of the cable, mainly strands that are not surrounded by the sheath. A second crimping operation or sealing crimping operation provides for the tight sealing of the connection. To this end, the sleeve of the contact is crimped on the sheath of the cable. These two crimping operations are performed simultaneously or one after the other.
To carry out the tightly sealing crimping, a known method consists of the application, in a first stage, of ovalization means on a zone of the sleeve surrounding the sheath. The ovalization means are formed, for example, by two pads. A contact zone of each pad with the sleeve is flat. The two pads forming the ovalization means are applied on either side of the sleeve in order to flatten it. These flattened faces of the sleeve are crimped on to the sheath. In a second stage, once the sleeve has been partially flattened on the sheath, compression means are applied to the two ovoid faces of the sleeve. The compression means are, for example, formed by two pads. Each pad has a contact zone with the sleeve. The contact zone with the sleeve has a contour that follows the ovoid contour of the ovoid faces of the sleeve. The application of the compression means to the sleeve crimps the ovoid faces of the sleeve on the sheath.
Ovalization and compression means of this kind can be used to obtain a tightly sealed crimping of a connection. However, to ensure the tightly sealed quality of this crimping, the contact zone of the compression means must follow the ovoid contour of the sleeve exactly. Now, depending on a diameter of the electrical cable for which a connection has to be made, the ovoid contour of the sleeve obtained after the application of the ovalization means varies. It is therefore necessary to use different compression means for each diameter of the cable to be crimped. Furthermore, it is not possible to check the quality of the tight sealing of the connection made by such crimping means.
The invention seeks to resolve the problems set forth here above by proposing a crimping device that enables the tightly sealed crimping of the contact sleeves to cables of different diameters. The invention also proposes a device to check or control the tightly sealed quality of the crimping achieved.